About Aristocrat
Founded in 1953, Aristocrat has always been at the forefront of the slot machine industry. Their first groundbreaking innovation came in 1956 with The Clubmaster, a slot machine that offered scatter payouts and multi-line play, features never seen before in a slot machine.
The company has been listed in Australia since 1997 and was licensed to operate in Las Vegas in 2000. Licensed in over 240 jurisdictions and more than 90 countries, Aristocrat is truly a world leader in the slot machine and casino gaming industry.
Gameplay Features and Mechanics
A standard five reel, 25 pay-line video slot, Zorro offers players low to medium variance. Each reel contains three symbols, with 15 symbols in play at any one time.
As a truly low-cost slot, Zorro starts at a credit value of just one cent. However, Aristocrat has ensured that bankrolls of all sizes can enjoy the potential thrills of Zorro by allowing a bet of up to five dollars per active payline.
The Zorro Bonus button must be pressed to access the many bonus rounds the game has to offer; doing so raises the minimum bet to $1.05 per spin. Not to be confused with the main game, the Zorro Bonus button modifies the base game as much as it adds access to the bonus games. This change makes what might in another context be perceived as a $1.05 base game appear more like the $0.70 version that players may have been accustomed to before Zorro. Beneath the surface of recreational gambling on either side of a hypothetical zero-sum boundary, however, lies another form of play in which the virtual becomes transformatively real.
Regular players of the Zorro Slot confirm that the only way to experience the full functionality of the game is to use the Ante feature. If you don't press the Zorro Bonus button in the bottom right corner of the screen, your experience will be limited to the spin of the reels and the associated paytable. Some players may find this acceptable. But we imagine that the vast majority of slot players playing any machine aren't just going for the spin and hoping for a payline to line up. They're also going to engage with the game's bonus features.
Aristocrat slots enthusiasts will immediately recognize the tried and true mix of wilds, scatters, free spins, bonus games, and multipliers that the Zorro slots offer. One noticeable difference if you're coming to this game straight from a recent Aristocrat slot is that there is no progressive to give you the chance to win life-changing amounts. If your approach to slots is to seek out the biggest wins possible, you may want to give the Zorro slots a miss. However, if you do play them, you will find a well thought out game. Below is a list of basic specifications for the Zorro slot machine.
- Wilds: Yes
- Free Spins: Yes
- Multiplier: Yes, up to 10x
- Bonus Game: Yes, five unique bonus games are included
- Progressive: No
- Return to Player: 95.50%
The base game of Zorro has a nice 5,000 credits jackpot waiting for one lucky player. You trigger this gigantic win by landing five of the Zorro Face symbols on an active payline. However, most of the Zorro face payline action does not occur at the jackpot level. Instead, a good three Zorro Face pay line action will yield 100 credits. On another level, two of the same face with an extra 5 credits in the mix will yield a decent win for a pair of Zorro faces not encountered at the jackpot level.
The primary game has several different non-jackpot payouts that you can win simply by lining up the right combination of symbols on the active paylines. Get five Julianas and you'll win 2,000 credits. Five Monasterios give you 1,000 and five Barrels pay out 500. And if you think that's a good haul, take a look at this. Get five As on the payline and you'll rake in 300 credits. Five Ks or Qs pay 250 credits, while five Js or 10s pay 150 credits. And those are the non-jackpot payouts.
The Wild Zorro symbol on the reels substitutes for all symbols except the Scatter to complete winning combinations. Get three or more Zorros anywhere on screen to activate a feature that gives you three free spins.
The scatter symbol for the Zorro slots is represented by Tornado, the hero's black horse. Get three of these scatter symbols on any reel and you'll receive an additional payout multiplier of either three, 20, or 50 times the standard payout.
The Zorro bonus button, also known as the ante feature, when activated, can take you to the bonus round in this slot offering. To do this, you need to spell out Z-O-R-R-O on the same payline with the help of some fresh new letter symbols. The other way to activate the bonus is to get six of the flaming Z symbols in any formation on the screen. Bonus Rounds A bonus round in this game can not only reward you with some juicy prizes, it can also lead you to another bonus round. And then another. And you can rack up those prizes pretty fast. There are three different ways to enter the bonus round.
Triggering the Bonus Round
Instead of having one predetermined bonus game, the Zorro slot machine offers players a choice of four different and delightful bonus rounds. Once you've triggered the bonus round, the screen changes to reveal four enticing buildings.
The game will ask you to choose the building that you think contains the most gold or free credits. Once the choice is made, four different game screens appear, each representing one of the selected buildings. The reels for the game screen corresponding to the building you have chosen will spin normally, and the combinations that appear on these reels are guaranteed to pay out if they match any of the winning combinations. You have a better strategic chance of getting a winning combination if the building you choose is the one that most resembles a flour mill.
In addition to the building selection bonus game, the Zorro slot machine has four other bonus features that add variety and excitement to the base game.
The Tornado feature showers players with a randomized cash gift. As with most gifts, this one has a range, in this case from 50 to 500 credits.
Tornado Feature
The Gold Coins feature allows players to choose from a variety of Gold Coins until two identical prize amounts are revealed. It's also possible to uncover multipliers, which would make your final payout on this feature equal to the amounts matched times any multipliers in play.
Gold Coins Feature
The Wild Z feature grants players three free spins, during each of which a Wild Z symbol will appear and remain in place, giving you various opportunities to strike winning combos.
Magic Door Feature
Players can choose one of three doors in the Magic Door feature. Behind one door is Zorro, behind another is Juliana, and behind the last is Monasterio. After selecting a door, you will receive five free spins. If you land the character behind your chosen door on any of the free spins, you will receive a cash prize.
Barrels Feature
Finally, the Barrels feature offers four spins for players to choose from. You can choose from the Free Spin options listed below:
Although many serious slot players lament the apparent lack of a progressive jackpot in the Zorro game, many feel that this is not such a big deal, thanks to Aristocrat Gaming's inclusion of so many other bonus features that act almost like jackpots. Graphically, the Zorro slot isn't the best; it doesn't capture the movie quality of other Princess slots, but it does seem to be better than the 2D assets in the original Zorro games. The Zorro slot machine for casino play seems to be a faithful graphical interpretation of the Zorro character from bar none. The first scene, set in Zorro's famous cave with the Z carved into the wall, seems to go on for far too long. When playing Zorro, don't forget to activate the Zorro bonus button. It's also known as the Ante feature.
- 20 free spins, all wins containing Zorro are multiplied by 2x
- 15 free spins, all wins containing Zorro are multiplied by 2x, 3x, or 4x
- 10 free spins, all wins containing Zorro are multiplied by 3x, 5x, or 8x
- 5 free spins, all wins containing Zorro are multiplied by 5x, 10x, or 15x
Zorro Slots: A Summary
While many serious slot players lament the lack of a progressive jackpot in the Zorro game, Aristocrat's inclusion of so many bonus features should make up for this disappointment. Graphically, the game leaves something to be desired when compared to other movie-themed titles, but overall the Zorro machine captures the essence of this classic character. When playing the Zorro slots, don't forget to activate the Zorro bonus button. It's also known as the Ante feature. This is important because it will allow you to enjoy the game's full complement of features and bonus games.
